Tom Wolk

Tom "T-Bone" Wolk
Background information
Born(1951-12-24)December 24, 1951
Yonkers, New York, U.S.
DiedFebruary 28, 2010(2010-02-28) (aged 58)
Genres
  • Pop
  • rock
  • blues
Occupations
  • Musician
  • producer
Instruments
  • Bass guitar
  • guitar
  • mandolin
  • accordion
  • keyboards
Years active1964–2010
LabelsSay See Bone Music
Formerly of
Websitetbonewolk.com

Tom "T-Bone" Wolk December 24, 1951 was an American musician and bassist for the music duo Daryl Hall & John Oates and a member of the Saturday Night Live house band.

Life and career

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Wolk was born and raised in Yonkers, New York.[1] He was a state accordion champion by age 12. Seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, however, led him to bass and guitar—the former influenced by James Jamerson and Paul McCartney. He attended Roosevelt High School. Although he studied art at Cooper Union, most of his youth was spent playing in bar bands, where he first met guitarist G. E. Smith (who gave him the nickname T-Bone—for blues guitarist T-Bone Walker—after Wolk played his bass behind his head during a solo).

By the time he auditioned for and joined Hall & Oates in 1981, Wolk had cracked the studio and jingle scene on the recommendation of Will Lee, and had played on rap’s first gold record, Kurtis Blow’s "The Breaks." He played on Hall & Oates hits including "Maneater," "Out of Touch," "One on One," and "Family Man." He also anchored the Saturday Night Live house band from 1986–1992 with his Hall & Oates bandmate Smith.[2]

Wolk was a multi-instrumentalist and worked with Daryl Hall, Carly Simon, Jellyfish, Squeeze, Elvis Costello, Shawn Colvin and Billy Joel over the course of his career. Downtime from Hall & Oates led to tours with Carly Simon and Billy Joel, and many studio sessions, highlighted by four albums with Costello and one with Costello and Burt Bacharach.

In 1991, Wolk co-produced Willie Nile's Places I Have Never Been on Columbia Records. Wolk also worked with Ryan Leslie on his self-titled debut album. Wolk recorded on bluesman Guy Davis' albums, Butt Naked Free and Chocolate to the Bone, and appeared with Guy on Late Night with Conan O'Brien performing, "Waitin' On the Cards to Fall". Wolk had a column in the publication Guitar for the Practicing Musician during the 1980s.

A longtime resident of Brattleboro, Vermont, Wolk maintained a steady recording and touring pace, especially in light of Hall & Oates's re-emergence. He also appeared on the latest albums from Simon (his fifth with her) and ex-New York Yankees baseballer and guitarist Bernie Williams.

References

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  1. ^ ""Hall & Oates bassist T-Bone Wolk dies", 1 March 2010, CBC News". Cbc.ca. March 1, 2010. Retrieved September 13, 2011.
  2. ^ "In Memoriam: Tom T-Bone Wolk". Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
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